Warren acknowledges she does not opt to pay higher state tax rate

Elizabeth Warren acknowledged this morning that she does not pay a voluntary higher tax rate on her state income taxes, a question her campaign had previously refused to answer.

“I paid my taxes and I did not make a charitable contribution to the state,” she told reporters during a campaign event at her Somerville headquarters, according to the Associated Press. The Globe first posed the question on Monday.

Massachusetts allows filers to pay a higher rate if they choose. Warren, a Democrat running for US Senate, has criticized incumbent Scott Brown, a Republican, this week for voting against the Buffett Rule, a tax on millionaires named for billionaire financier Warren Buffett, who supports the measure.

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The measure, which raises the effective tax rate on those earning at least $1 million a year, failed in the Senate Monday night on a procedural vote, which Brown has called an election year stunt.

Brown’s campaign and state Republicans have criticized Warren, who has earned a six-figure salary and owns assets worth millions, for her previous refusal to answer whether she pays a voluntary higher rate, calling her an “elitist hypocrite” who “lectures others about their responsibility to pay higher taxes.”

Warren has said that questions about her personal practices are not relevant to the public policy debate. The debate, her campaign has said is “not about funding government through voluntary contributions...but about our values.”

Noah Bierman can be reached at nbierman@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @noahbierman.